It’s all about the money
I really thought I’d struck gold when i-heart radio was commercial free without a fee. Then it happened, they now charge for commercial free and the free station is littered with commercials that are louder and obnoxious in between the music I love to listen to each day. It’s sad it’s about the money and nothing is sacred anymore without a profit motive. The commercials can’t be manually jumped over and they are louder than the volume of the music. They interfere with atmosphere of the songs being played. I manually reduced the volume so I don’t have to listen to the drivel of each commercial played. Then they put you through a torturous video commercial at startup before you get to listen to your favorite music.
Honestly, I can’t even remember one of their commercial sponsors except for the monotone , “Cars for kids “ that I muted until it goes over. We are so mercifully pelted with commercials these days that I don’t honestly remember any commercial I hear. If I’m going to by something, I use a search engine to find what I’m in need of and not brainwashed into buying something from an obnoxious repetitive commercial. If anything, I’m repelled by the commercials and boycott their products. Thank you for the opportunity to vent my displeasure with today’s technology held hostage by advertising ad-nauseum. Yuck!
Honestly, I can’t even remember one of their commercial sponsors except for the monotone , “Cars for kids “ that I muted until it goes over. We are so mercifully pelted with commercials these days that I don’t honestly remember any commercial I hear. If I’m going to by something, I use a search engine to find what I’m in need of and not brainwashed into buying something from an obnoxious repetitive commercial. If anything, I’m repelled by the commercials and boycott their products. Thank you for the opportunity to vent my displeasure with today’s technology held hostage by advertising ad-nauseum. Yuck!
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Response from developer
Hi Chief, thanks for the feedback. Ads help keep iHeartRadio free for everyone. If you feel you're experiencing an excessive amount of ads please let us know. Email ios@iheartradio.com and make sure to let us know the station and time you heard the ad.
Drops Out
I used to love this app as I find it great to listen to my fav radio station no matter where I am but the reliability of it is becoming less n less over the last 6mths or so with continually dropping out, sometimes several times in just 1hr! It used to happen sometimes but not to the point where I had to stop what I was doing to sort it out. I’m glad I’m not the only one that experiences this! It continually drops out mid song/conversation (especially extremely irritating when I’m trying to listen to the news). My internet connection is perfectly strong as everything else that I use over wifi works perfectly well without any problems. All my updates for this app are completely up to date as well. This happens both on my phone and my iPad. It is extremely frustrating and irritating having to come to my device from another room to try n stop n start it again! The only reason I’m not giving it 1 star is because I know how good it used to be before all of this unreliability!
PLEASE sort it out cause my patience will eventually run out completely n I’ll go n find something else more reliable. Seems to be a common theme throughout these reviews.....
PLEASE sort it out cause my patience will eventually run out completely n I’ll go n find something else more reliable. Seems to be a common theme throughout these reviews.....
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Response from developer
Hi there, we're so sorry to hear about the experience you've had while using the app. I want to assure you we're looking into this problem with audio drop outs on some NZ stations. So we can look into this and also connect with you once this issue has been corrected can you shoot an email over to ios-nz@iheartradio.com?
Dropping out constantly
This used to be a great app but now it constantly drops out which is very frustrating! I use it every morning and have to constantly start the station again as it’s buffering. My reception is fine. Today it’s decided to just not start again so I’m off to find another app that won’t drop off. It’s a shame as ZM are associated with iHeartRadio and constantly advertised and the app is very disappointing!
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Response from developer
Hi there, we want to assure you we're looking into the trouble you're having! It would be incredibly helpful to know a bit more information about your experience if possible. Could you shoot an email over to ios-NZ@iheartradio.com when you have a chance?
Has worked flawlessly right up until the last update
Have used the app daily in the car and out and about from almost the very beginning. Since the latest update to the IOS app there is now a requirement to log-in to the app each time I want to use it with my Apple Carplay. I have to physically pull over to the side of the road, open the app on the phone and re log-in to even use iHeart. This has happened at least a dozen times since the latest update. Like many people I do not (and will not) use the cloud to store data and/or passwords. If that is what it is looking for each time then fine, please accept that you’ll lose customer base as people take their data security seriously.
PROS: great app, quality content, easy to use and not too many ads.
CONS: constantly have to log-in and slow to fire up on Carplay sometimes
PROS: great app, quality content, easy to use and not too many ads.
CONS: constantly have to log-in and slow to fire up on Carplay sometimes
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Response from developer
Hi Jen, we'd be happy to look into this experience you're having so we can make sure it gets corrected. Could you shoot an email over to ios-au@iheartradio.com?
Super inconsistent
I use this app because it gives me access to older podcasts than apple’s podcast app does, but this app is absolutely infuriating! Sometimes the controls will be available from the home screen or the control center, but not always. Sometimes the controls have play/pause, skip forward 30s and skip backward 15s, but sometimes it’s play/pause, skip forward 30s and 3 bars that allow you to skip to the next/last podcast and maybe remove it from your list of favorites (can’t remember the last feature). The fact that the app isn’t always recognized as playing means that I can’t use my headphone shortcuts to play/pause like I normally do, and have to go in to open the app if I want to pause, which is super inconvenient when someone comes in to talk to you but you’re listening to a podcast and have to dig around to finally make the app pause and by that point you’ve either missed an indeterminate amount of podcast or you’ve missed half of what the person was saying to you.
Overall this seems like something that an app developer whose primary focus is audio should be really on top of, and it is pretty poor development not to have this figured out in my opinion.
Overall this seems like something that an app developer whose primary focus is audio should be really on top of, and it is pretty poor development not to have this figured out in my opinion.
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Response from developer
Hi there, we're sorry to hear about the issues that you have experienced. I can assure you that we are looking into the problem you've experienced with the controls not showing on your lockscreen. To best address your concern, it would be incredibly helpful to know more about your experience. Could you email ios@iheartradio.com and give our team a little more feedback?
Good App for streaming
It really is a good app. On the plus side, it is efficient with band usage if you have a limited internet plan. It is stable, with good buffering (I have lousy internet in my area so this is vital to me).
It has a lot of content, including podcasts galore that can be downloaded.
The minus, for which I deduct the stars has been to do with the ads. (I know, I could subscribe, but the monthly is too high for what I am listening too. Maybe some day someone can develop some sort of tiered subscriptions for those of us who just listen to limited content).
I listen to a 24 hr news show with commentary. I grew up listening to KFI640 Los Angeles every morning. I don’t begrudge iheart for slipping in a couple of ads here and there, but you step right over THE PROGRAM ITSELF! Your ads should step on top of their ads, not the program. I want the whole news, not just the commentary. That’s what I chose, and it infuriates me when you cut the program off for a crappy 7-11 add, for which I will NEVER set foot in as my blood pressure rises, every time I see the sign and am reminded it’s going to INTERRUPT the program I am listening to in the morning. Iheart could program the timing of their ads better than this.
It has a lot of content, including podcasts galore that can be downloaded.
The minus, for which I deduct the stars has been to do with the ads. (I know, I could subscribe, but the monthly is too high for what I am listening too. Maybe some day someone can develop some sort of tiered subscriptions for those of us who just listen to limited content).
I listen to a 24 hr news show with commentary. I grew up listening to KFI640 Los Angeles every morning. I don’t begrudge iheart for slipping in a couple of ads here and there, but you step right over THE PROGRAM ITSELF! Your ads should step on top of their ads, not the program. I want the whole news, not just the commentary. That’s what I chose, and it infuriates me when you cut the program off for a crappy 7-11 add, for which I will NEVER set foot in as my blood pressure rises, every time I see the sign and am reminded it’s going to INTERRUPT the program I am listening to in the morning. Iheart could program the timing of their ads better than this.
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Response from developer
Hello, we're sorry to hear about your less than ideal listening experience. It would be incredibly helpful if you could email us at ios@iheartradio.com and let us know the name of the ad as well as the time you heard the ad.
Lousy App with Inconsistent Content
They keep making this app worse! Now the app has to be restarted nearly every time I stop pause a channel. I can't help but wonder if they release updates as frequently as they do so that their app has more stars than it should.
How about adding an option to nag screen of "Never" and making the default start screen "My Stations." Even trying to launch from the widget does not work as the app keeps forgetting my recent stations.
I'd give it ZERO stars if I could. They took a buggy app that crashes, and introduced startup/channel change advertisements that delay getting to the program. It seems like every update makes this app perform worse. The newest version of app will just stop playing at the top and top and/or bottom of the hour. Further, the app once again fails to resume following a phone call.
The widget also fails to play the station. Further, the app keeps forgetting recently played stations!
More important is that channels like WLS are running commercials when the show has resumed for over-the-air listeners (that's assuming the stream is working at all). Further, app stops playing content for no apparent reason even while connected to WiFi. When tested against iheartradio on the computer (using same connection) the stream is playing on the computer, so the problem is with the app.
Luckily, the content I enjoy is not limited to Clear Channel stations. Clear Channel should hire competent developers.
How about adding an option to nag screen of "Never" and making the default start screen "My Stations." Even trying to launch from the widget does not work as the app keeps forgetting my recent stations.
I'd give it ZERO stars if I could. They took a buggy app that crashes, and introduced startup/channel change advertisements that delay getting to the program. It seems like every update makes this app perform worse. The newest version of app will just stop playing at the top and top and/or bottom of the hour. Further, the app once again fails to resume following a phone call.
The widget also fails to play the station. Further, the app keeps forgetting recently played stations!
More important is that channels like WLS are running commercials when the show has resumed for over-the-air listeners (that's assuming the stream is working at all). Further, app stops playing content for no apparent reason even while connected to WiFi. When tested against iheartradio on the computer (using same connection) the stream is playing on the computer, so the problem is with the app.
Luckily, the content I enjoy is not limited to Clear Channel stations. Clear Channel should hire competent developers.
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Dupped
The app was great a few years ago and is fun on the desktop service since I last used it. I was itching for more radio recently and decided to open up the app. As soon as I did I was prompted with a subscription payment from iHeartRadio. They wanted me to verify that I wanted to try their trial subscription. I barely had enough time to look at what was going on before I accidentally rested my finger on my scanner and the subscription was accepted. I was lucky to be able to reverse it, however if I want that free trial now I have to use it immediately or not at all.
This is ridiculous. I should not be immediately prompted with a payment upon opening an app that I haven’t used in months. Is downright disrespectful and near predatory. There was also no warning. No pop up to show me that I was going to make a purchase, no redirection. Immediately loading into the app I was forced into a transaction. From what I’ve read of similar reviews this isn’t uncommon. The lack of respect I was shown is disgusting to me. Please be wary of this. I will try out this app some more but this is a really bad way to start off.
This is ridiculous. I should not be immediately prompted with a payment upon opening an app that I haven’t used in months. Is downright disrespectful and near predatory. There was also no warning. No pop up to show me that I was going to make a purchase, no redirection. Immediately loading into the app I was forced into a transaction. From what I’ve read of similar reviews this isn’t uncommon. The lack of respect I was shown is disgusting to me. Please be wary of this. I will try out this app some more but this is a really bad way to start off.
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Great but one issue...
I am completely loving this app. Features that I love is that it plays in the background of any other app. This is the best especially when using Waze in the car. I can still get the verbal directions from waze and the volume of iHeartRadio goes lower but doesn’t shut off! Also, when I close the app mid podcast, the podcast restarts automatically upon returning to the app. This also continues playing when minimized and when the phone is locked.
The only feature that I would love to see change is the order in which the podcasts play. Instead of going up the list, example #4 to #5, the podcasts will play going down the list from #5 to #4. This means that you have to physically go into the app and click on the next podcast on the list. This is something that I hate doing, particularly when driving as it’s dangerous! I would love for iHeartRadio to fix this issue so that I can play a podcast list, and let it run up the list without needing to reopen the app and physically tap the next on the list.
Besides this issue, I love this app for podcasts!
The only feature that I would love to see change is the order in which the podcasts play. Instead of going up the list, example #4 to #5, the podcasts will play going down the list from #5 to #4. This means that you have to physically go into the app and click on the next podcast on the list. This is something that I hate doing, particularly when driving as it’s dangerous! I would love for iHeartRadio to fix this issue so that I can play a podcast list, and let it run up the list without needing to reopen the app and physically tap the next on the list.
Besides this issue, I love this app for podcasts!
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Fabulous app
I’ve tried many music apps in the past couple of months and to be honest they are just exhausting. Liking music to essentially like more music that you’ll probably never listen to again.
I heart radio is fantastic , I’ve been really surprised with the catalogue of artists at hand and being able have the radio and podcasts accessible in the app also is fantastic. It’s got it all.
I heart radio is fantastic , I’ve been really surprised with the catalogue of artists at hand and being able have the radio and podcasts accessible in the app also is fantastic. It’s got it all.
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